Meanwhile, Joey's real estate agent located an apartment that allowed pets, and was far enough away from the gang for Joey to avoid running into Ross and Rachel by accident.

So in late January, Joey moved into his new apartment with the birds, and his friends helped bring over the foosball table and other furniture; Chandler had put it all into storage in Joey's absence because he couldn't bear to sell it or give it away.

Then Joey had a housewarming party, and Monica spent most of the time giving him suggestions as to how to decorate the apartment; she was clearly in nesting mode.

The next day, while Chandler was out, Joey sat Monica down and tried to have a serious talk with her. "Mon? Do you ever think about what might have been?"

"Like what?"

"Like, what if you hadn't married Chandler? Or if, say, my internet minister thing wasn't legal after all? What would you do, as a free, single woman?"

"Our marriage isn't legal?" she asked with wide eyes. "My child's gonna be a bastard!"

"No, no! I mean, hypothetically. If you weren't married to Chandler, would you do it all over again? Or what if you and Chandler never hooked up in London, or you stayed broken up after Vegas? Do you think you'd be happier with someone else? Like, remember when you flirted with all those soap opera actors at my roof party? Would you like to, you know, play the field a bit more?"

"That was just for that party, and--" Monica stopped and realized something. She rolled her eyes. "Wait--is this some roundabout way of asking me to cheat with you, Joey? Do you like pregnant women that much?"

"Monica! I just--I just wanna know if you ever regret marrying Chandler. If you think about going back to Richard maybe."

"For the last time, I'm over Richard, and I really wish Chandler would let that go. Did he put you up to talking to me about this?"

"No! Look, Monica, what if you were meant to be with him? Richard, not Chandler. You know how Ross and Rachel kept falling in and out of love, and the timing was never right for them until this last time? Maybe the timing wasn't right with Richard when he proposed to you, but maybe it could work now if you guys tried it again."

"I'm married to Chandler, Joey. Your best friend, remember?"

"I know! But do you really love Chandler, or is he just, um, like me before Rachel got back together with Ross? Just a temp guy, filling in?"

"Joey! I love Chandler. I have no regrets, period. This marriage is not temporary."

Joey sighed and tried to believe her. But if she was telling the truth, it was still a one-sided marriage anyway, since Chandler didn't really love her. If only there was some way to fix this mess.

Before Joey could decide what, if anything, to do about Chandler and Monica, a scandal suddenly broke in all the local tabloids (and other newspapers that reported any bit of frivolous celebrity gossip).

It began when one tabloid printed a story saying that Joey Tribbiani had a secret gay lover, and the hot rumor was soon picked up by all the other publications. Normally, no one would have seriously believed such a rumor, especially considering Joey's well known reputation with women, but the original article was very persuasive and provided a lot of supporting evidence for its claim (probably to avert any charges of libel).

Ever since Joey's disappearance from New York for a month and a half, Joey had become a bit of a tantalizing mystery, instead of just another hot soap star. After Joey's return, the local paparazzi began to secretly follow Joey around for weeks, trying to get some hint about his vague "personal problem," but with little success. The most they found out was that Joey was no longer sleeping around and hadn't so much as flirted with any women lately, so they all began reporting their assumption that Joey must have been diagnosed as a sex addict and been told to cut back by a doctor. If only they could find some evidence of him going to a clinic or treatment center in New York! It would be too boring to report that Joey had just matured or got serious or something. While most local reporters futilely followed the "sex addict" theory, someone else got a different idea.

This lone reporter noticed a pattern in Joey's activities; he kept hanging around with the same guy all over New York, an old friend and former roommate named Chandler something. Apparently, Joey had even taken him to a movie premiere a few years back. Then the reporter looked carefully at some pictures of Joey and Chandler from Rockefeller Center, the night after Christmas. They were intimately whispering and embracing. Clinging to each other.

So what if this Chandler guy wasn't just Joey's friend? What if their frequent hugs and glances meant something more? What if Joey's supposed sexual problem had less to do with women, than with men?

The possibility of breaking such a juicy story inspired this ambitious and industrious reporter to dig deep and find something concrete to back up his idea. He discovered that the same day that Joey quit Days of Our Lives, Chandler had shown up at the set to ask where Joey had gone, and witnesses said he looked frantic and kept pestering them. From that lead, the reporter began looking into Chandler's recent activities and learned that Chandler had booked a flight to L.A. just a couple of weeks before Joey had returned to New York. It couldn't be a coincidence, especially since Joey had implied that he had been hiding out in L.A. during his disappearance.

Using some contacts in L.A., the reporter found out which hotel Chandler had stayed at and asked if any phone calls or meetings with Joey had taken place. It turned out that Joey had been staying at the same hotel under a fake name, and the hotel staff recognized him now that they saw photos of Joey with the beard. So the reporter eagerly rushed to L.A. to conduct further, more detailed interviews of the staff, who eventually revealed that Joey and Chandler had ordered room service, and had most likely remained together the whole night, because Chandler was seen hugging Joey in the doorway the next morning. The maids had even noticed that only one bed had been slept in, and they had enjoyed gossiping about it for quite a while afterward.

This was all the ammunition the reporter needed to convince his paper to run the story; with all these facts behind it, this story clearly blew the "sex addict" theory out of the water.

Joey first heard about all this while he was at an audition; people kept whispering and glancing at him strangely, then he finally noticed the tabloids that some of them were carrying. Joey grabbed a copy and read the headline in shock: "Tribbiani Mystery Solved: He's Gay."

Blushing with embarrassment, Joey hoped that none of his friends or family had seen any of the tabloids yet. This was just as bad as him appearing on a V.D. poster some years ago. Maybe even worse, considering that he was more famous now.

Then Estelle suddenly called to ask him, "Is this true, Joey?"

He realized that she sounded rather excited about it. "No, I'm not gay. Why--?"

"Are you sure?" she interrupted. "Because your huge gay fan base would just eat this up! I could get you such great parts..."

Joey rolled his eyes. "Estelle! It's not true! I'd sue them if I had a lawyer."

"Oh, don't do that!" Estelle protested. "Let the rumor live for a wh--"

Joey hung up on her. Estelle always had trouble listening. In exasperation, Joey headed home and tried to buy up the various tabloids he came across at newsstands, but then he realized that it was impossible to get all the tabloids, and he didn't want to feed any money to those rags anyway. So Joey gave up and hurried home while avoiding the glances of people on the street.

When Joey got to his apartment, he called Chandler and asked him if he'd heard yet.

"Heard what?"

Clearly he hadn't. "Is Monica home yet?"

"No, she's at the restaurant picking out who's going to fill in for her when she's on maternity leave. Some kind of cooking contest."

"Oh, right. Well, um, you better come over here, I guess."

"Okay." Chandler didn't question why; he would gladly come see Joey for any reason. Hanging up and getting his coat, Chandler didn't even bother to leave Monica a note, because she should know by now where he was likely to be.